DDCPoetry

Original poem reprinted online here: "Tar" by Douglas Kearney Originally read: June 14, 2013 More information about the Poet: Douglas Kearney When I reread this poem, I noticed something that past me wrote about for the end, "black implication? Too broad, misguided impact."  And I wonder why.  I think this is the challenge of the poem, how far does can on take a metaphor until the metaphor is an actual representation of the subject. For example, the opening line that includes the title, "[Tar] by the roadside, rude and odd and who / is it?"  The personification of Tar happens right away, but the attributes of "rude and odd" doesn't necessarily humanize the tar, but the idea of humanization happens with, "who is it?" And at this point, the "Tar" has to be taken as a term for a person.  I think this makes sense.  Instead of playing with the signifier and signified, or punning around, the poem is more direct, "won't ...